Protest against Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer – today at ASB Tennis Classic

A protest will be held outside the ASB Tennis Classic in Auckland this morning at 11am against the participation of Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer.

A letter has been sent to Shahar this morning calling for her to withdraw from the tournament. The letter (which is pasted at the end of this release) says

“Just as an international consensus developed to boycott South Africa to bring pressure for change, a similar boycott of Israel is building which includes sporting contacts”

Israel follows policies towards Palestinians which are remarkably similar to the apartheid policies of the white South African regime. As far back as 1989 South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu said “if you change the names, the description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would be a description of what is happening in South Africa.”

Shahar Peer was subject to a protest at the tournament last year at the time when the brutal Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip was at its height. Israel’s policies towards Palestinians have not changed in the meantime.

The sports boycott is a key part of the boycott campaign because it is more visible than a trade or investment boycott and can have an important psychological impact. We saw this with the successful sports boycotts against apartheid South Africa.

The boycott of Israel also involves trade, investment, commerce, diplomacy, culture and academic contacts.
(See www.big.org.nz (BIG = Boycott Israeli Goods))

We acknowledged to Shahar is a significant sacrifice we are asking her to make because as a professional tennis player she relies on these tournaments for a living. However the sacrifices being forced onto Palestinians by Israel are far greater and she should be prepared to make the sacrifice.

ENDS

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